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NEW YORK CITY -Only 30 days left to prepare
and submit applications for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. This
distinguished international prize program awards $100,000 to support
the development and implementation of a solution that has significant
potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems.

"We know that people all over the world are doing amazing things. We
are excited to receive this year's entries and have an amazing line-up
of international thought leaders coming on the jury." expressed
Executive Director, Elizabeth Thompson. She suggested that you share
this information with those people and organizations that would be
interested and get the word out to your networks.

I write this on the morning of the end of the once-mighty General Motors. By high noon, the President of the United States will have made it official: General Motors, as we know it, has been totaled.(Photo: http://juliohuato.wordpress.com)

As I sit here in GM's birthplace, Flint, Michigan, I am surrounded by friends and family who are filled with anxiety about what will happen to them and to the town. Forty percent of the homes and businesses in the city have been abandoned. Imagine what it would be like if you lived in a city where almost every other house is empty. What would be your state of mind?

It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete. It refused to build automobiles that the public wanted, cars that got great gas mileage, were as safe as they could be, and were exceedingly comfortable to drive. Oh -- and that wouldn't start falling apart after two years. GM stubbornly fought environmental and safety regulations. Its executives arrogantly ignored the "inferior" Japanese and German cars, cars which would become the gold standard for automobile buyers. And it was hell-bent on punishing its unionized workforce, lopping off thousands of workers for no good reason other than to "improve" the short-term bottom line of the corporation. Beginning in the 1980s, when GM was posting record profits,

President Barack Obama says he wants unemployment insurance to become a steppingstone for future work by making it easier to enroll in school or job training. Whether that happens will depend on the willingness of states and colleges to change the rules. (Photo: www.clutchmagonline.com)

People who have been laid off and want to go back to school often have to give up their unemployment benefits. If they return to work, they often don't qualify for federal aid because eligibility is based on the previous year's income.

Under rule changes Obama outlined Friday, the Labor Department will ask states to make exceptions during economic downturns so that the unemployed can keep their benefits if they go to community college or pursue other education or training.

THIMPHU, Bhutan - If the rest of the world cannot get it right in
these unhappy times, this tiny Buddhist kingdom high in the Himalayan
mountains says it is working on an answer.

"Greed,
insatiable human greed," said Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan,
describing what he sees as the cause of today's economic catastrophe in
the world beyond the snow-topped mountains. "What we need is change,"
he said in the whitewashed fortress where he works. "We need to think
gross national happiness."

Nassim Haramein for more than two decades has been claiming that black
holes are the source of creation, not the result of it. His model
early on permitted him to predict that black holes would be found at
the center of all galactic formations. In many cases Haramein produced
large controversy stating that black holes were most likely there prior
to galactic formation, or even star formation, and that even our own
sun and the atomic structure that makes up our reality is centered by
black hole dynamics, or what he calls the spin horizon of a white
whole/black whole.

Yesterday I sat in on a press teleconference with the three co-chairs of the bipartisan coalition Building America's Future:
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pennsylvania Governor Ed
Rendell and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The main topic of
discussion: the results of a national poll, paid for by their group,
which suggest that U.S. citizens across party lines overwhelmingly
support infrastructure improvement, and that most would willingly
approve a one percent increase in taxes to pay for the work.

A selection of resources for observing the "13 Moon" calendar - an
alternative to the Gregorian calendar based in artificial, man-made
time created with inconsistent months of 30, 31 and 28 days with 29
days every fourth year. The "13 Moon" calendar invites us back into
moon-made cycles and the rhythms of nature.

Here, we are recognizing World AIDS Day, but in Africa, ground zero
for AIDS, on the ground in Rwanda, calendars are pretty much useless,
today is another day to survive, like so many other days.

For the better part of this year, my company and I have been working on (RED)
the project created by Bobby Shriver and Bono to help eliminate AIDS in
Africa. To date, (RED) has raised over $110 million for The Global Fund.

Of all the things that I have seen, of all the conversations, of all
the meetings, I wanted to share with you today the one thing that
sticks in my mind, and keeps me awake at night.